For this weeks blog post I will be discussing the pattern known as Draw You Own Map. The context behind this one is that any given employer can offer only a limited subset of all possible career paths. The problem that would arise from this is that none of the career paths your employer provides actually fits you. The solution that would come from this situation would be to simply identify the next logical but ambitious next step in your career. Realize that it is not up to your employer, your career counselor or your professors to give you a hand up or decide your fate. Arriving at the next step and charting the course is a decision that ultimately comes down to your responsibility. You need to take the first step that is the most important part, even if that step doesn’t seem to significant. This first step should generate the momentum needed to help carry you toward your goal, no matter the terror you may feel. Try to define small, yet achievable steps allowing feedback that you can use to modify your road map which could also make it easier to get help from Kindred Spirits to achieve said goals. If the vision of which your employer sees of you and the one you see of yourself do not match your preferred accordance examine the opportunities to see if they’re heading in the desired direction. Instead follow other successful apprentice paths that share a resemblance to what you are going through. You should constantly reassess your map as your circumstances and values change. Sometimes the map will be in accordance with that of those around you, other times the map will require you to chart your own path through the wilderness. The only constant is that the map is yours, and you are free to redraw it at any time. A good action to take with this is that you could list three jobs that you think you could do while following the current one. Then begin to list three jobs each of those would lead to. Are these really the full range of desirable jobs for the next few years of your life? Ask yourself if this set of jobs is more representative of the range of career options you have before you and what places you want to take in this career. If you are unhappy with the list so far, repeating the exercise with different jobs, business or technology domains could help. Then repeat the exercise again to see where you would end up. Yet again this is something anyone who catches themselves in should do, as it will help you in the long run and in general.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Matt's Blog by mattyd99 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week, I’m reflecting on the Use the Source pattern from Chapter 5: Perpetual Learning. We all know the best way to gain expertise in programming is to actually program. However, it’s tough to know what tools are the best ones to learn from. This pattern suggests learning concepts by viewing the works of others — you’ll pick up on tips and tricks and can directly understand how to solve difficult problems if you learn from material from those who are great at solving problems. Even if the work you read isn’t from master software craftsman — just reading code vastly improves your ability to utilize code in your future.

I like this pattern a lot for a few reasons. I have always been timid about contributing to open source projects due to a lack of feeling comfort with handling others’ code. However, recently I started looking at a few open source projects and felt as though I could really contribute to the projects if I wanted to. I get the sense that this comfort has come from me handling and reading code more regularly on a daily basis. Another reason I enjoyed this pattern was reassurance. I’m starting in a Software Engineering position at Stratus Technologies in a month and a half’s time. I’m feeling extremely fortunate that I got hired, and I also know that I have a tremendous amount to learn — both when start the job (about the code they have in place) and beforehand. Their codebase is vast and complex, and in order to be an effective team member, I’m going to need to get used to dealing with large, multilayered, and complex systems.

In the arts, there’s a learning concept where the artist does “Master Studies”. Essentially, the idea is to choose a piece of art from a great artist and try to recreate it from scratch, by using the work as reference. This puts the artist’s skills to the test, but it gives them a framework to work within. I see this pattern and the concept of “Master Studies” as related, in a way. By examining the work of those who have made a name for themselves in the field, we get insight into how their mind works. There are many brilliant “Master” engineers out there, and they’ve written a tremendous amount of code that I can conduct my own “master studies” of. It’s like reading great literature — it will impact your work for the rest of your career.

From the blog CS@Worcester – James Blash by jwblash and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

I skimmed through a few apprenticeship patterns before I found on the one that hit home with me, “Sweep the Floor.” The “problem” it presented was something that I am faced with starting every new venture at this stage on my journey. It stated, “You are a new apprentice on a project.” No matter where I go, this will describe me.

I have talked in my last apprenticeship pattern blog that I am starting as an intern at a friend’s start up, and I will be taking the advice presented here and applying it to this and the next venture I go to afterwards.

The solution advocates for doing the “simple, unglamorous, yet necessary, tasks.” It is tempting to do the opposite and try to do the “fun,” “exciting” things, but it stresses to not to, and prove yourself through the small tasks.

I have had the thought that in most fields that you don’t need a degree for, one would start at an entry level job. From there, they would work their way up. The stories friends have told me about their grueling interview processes scare me. I would prefer to start at an “entry level” position over starting off with a position that I feel way over my head.

I know I have talked here in the past about apprenticeship patterns that advocate for taking on big assignments even if you don’t feel ready — the pattern “diving deep” in particular. However, I think that diving deep comes after you have laid out the foundation with this pattern. I’m going to try to not let the bigger tasks intimidate me, but i won’t think that the small tasks are beneath me.

On the contrary, the small tasks are incredibly important — not just for the use of the company, but for learning new skills. The pattern did make a point to say that many who have spent a lot of time and money getting their degree might consider this beneath them, but I don’t feel that way. A little over a year ago I was working fast food, taking out the trash, and literally sweeping the floor. I was happy to literally do it then, and I will be happy to figuratively do it for any company that accepts me as part of the team. I want to be a team player, and I will be glad to do small tasks that are important to the team. Moreover, I will volunteer for them.

From the blog Sam Bryan by and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

For my last pattern for this blog, I wanted to do one that I’ve been waiting to do until the end. This being potentially the last formal software engineering class I will take, I wanted to read “Draw Your Own Map”. This pattern talks about the importance of working in an environment that will help you reach your personal goals. It also makes it very clear that the person who has sole responsibility for taking the first step in each of the small goals that lead to the high level goals that make up every “goals” list, is the reader. We need to take responsibility and not blame any company, or position that could potentially be holding up back from reaching our goals.

I’ve always been a goal oriented person, whether it be in terms of finances, academics, career, or personal. So far I’ve done a relatively good job at achieving my goals and hope to continue this trend throughout my life. In relation to career goals, since I started my college career I knew that I wanted to be involved in software development in one way or another. Through my internships, I’ve learned what I look for in a company and the position that I will be starting upon graduation. I consider it drastically important when interviewing with companies to ask the employees what their goals are. If they’ve been with the company for years and their goals are similar to yours, it should mean that the company is a good fit. For me, I looked for companies that value mentorship, are current with today’s team-based practices, and allow for good work-life balance. On top of all of these, the ability to “be water” and move around within the company if my goals change is also important to me.

Everyone’s map is going to be different but it is important to stay fluid in your mindset of what is important. Do not allow yourself to be pigeonholed to a position that you may one day hate and also makes it difficult for you to find work if you decide to move on. Find a position where the company values your work ethic and desire to learn over the specific skills you have coming into the position, while they are important, they aren’t what will make your relationship with the company last for the long term.

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Road to Software Engineering by Stephen Burke and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This apprenticeship pattern discusses the importance of digging deep into the tools, technologies, and techniques that you use. If your knowledge is superficial, you will have trouble fixing subtle problems and won’t even be aware of how little you know. You must have the depth of knowledge to understand why things are the way they are. This will allow you to actually be able to explain the details of what is going under the surface of the systems you work on.

This pattern discusses several things you must do to acquire a deeper knowledge of whatever you’re working on. You must have a shift in perspective that involves wanting to follow a problem through the layers of a system to understand the root of what is actually going on. You should be familiar with various kinds of debuggers and must also be able to read specifications. It is also important to get your information from primary sources. For example, instead of learning about something from a blog post you found online, you should read the thesis paper that defined the concept that the blog post is discussing. By applying this pattern, you will be able to truly understand how the tools and systems that you use actually work.

I agree with the idea of this pattern. You should try to dig as deep as you can whenever possible in order to understand how things work. However, I question how realistic it is for a working software developer to actually follow this pattern. If you are asked to implement something for work that has a deadline, you won’t have hours to spend reading academic papers when a quick Google search will get the job done most of the time. This pattern warns that you should take care to not accidentally become a narrow specialist, but if you are truly diving deep into everything you learn it would be hard not to. There just isn’t enough time in the day to learn the fundamental concepts behind every tool or technique that you use. While I agree with the idea behind this pattern, I don’t think it is a very realistic goal for the majority of people.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Computer Science Blog by rydercsblog and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hi my readers. Welcome back to my blog.  In this blog post I am going to talk about an interesting pattern called “Use Your Title”.

Most us, who have worked in big companies and most of you who will in the future, are gonna have a FANCY title at your job. Sometimes even the person itself will get confused by its own title as at the beginning might not describe well what it means.

The best advice given by the authors for this pattern is: “Don’t allow your title to affect you! & Don’t be fooled by an impressive title!” It happens a lot nowadays that people have to explain what they really do because not everyone is aware of what a job title might be and what are the duties and responsibilities. There are also a lot of other cases where people misinterpret the job titles. My job title in my company is Support Engineer. and when some people would hear the name Support they automatically told me ” So you like talking on the phone with customer huh?!” That’s where I had to explain what my real position was and what was I actually doing. As I come from Albania, at the beginning I used to ‘blame’ on the company for giving me this title, but later on I realized it was the people who were to blame.

As you might know by now, I am graduating this May with a major in Computer Science and Software Development concentration. While having a conversation at my office with my teammates we all agreed that our titles were a bit too much as we hadn’t graduated as Engineers but developers. However, we all like using the fancy title.

The other side of the coin is where you have such a high job position and your job title doesn’t fully express much about it until you say what you actually do.

In both cases, the most important thing is to explain what you do with your own words and not the title, fancy or not. It is always good to have a written definition of what you do and what your duties are as you might never know who you might come across to.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Danja's Blog by danja9 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.